EXPERIMENTAL WORK AND RESEARCH

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EXPERIMENTAL WORK AND RESEARCH Effects of Rheum officinale on the Renal Hypertrophy and Hyperfiltration in the Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

To study the effects of Rheum officinale (RO) on epidermal growth factor (EGF) in renalhypertrophy in the diabetic rats were induced by streptozotocin. The results showed that renal hypertro-phy occurred in the diabetic rats, but not in the RO-treated rats. Urine EGF was 38.2 16. 6 ng/24 h atday 28 in the control, and it was signiticantly increased from day 7 in the diabetic rats (477. 8 187. 2 ng/24 h at day 7, 328. 2 153. 9 ng/24 h at day 28) , while in the RO-treated rats it was significantly less thanthat in the diabetic rats (282. 2 112. 5 ng/24 h at day 7, 258. 3 72. 3 ng/24 h at day 28) . Moreover,glomerular filtration rate and renal blood flow reduced in RO-treated diabetic rats as compared with strep-tozotocin diabetic rats. Because kidney is the main source of urine EGF and EGF has been shown to in-duce renal growth both in vitro and in vivo. It is indicated that EGF may be able to initiate renal hypertro-phy in diabetic rats, and the effect of RO on the renal hypertrophy is probably relative to the inhibition ofrenal EGF production resulted from RO treatment.